Trying to do everything all at once!

LiveLifeFull

Happy Monday everyone! :j


We are back from a lovely week away in Kent/London. We did spend a little bit - as we BOTH got extra money this month. We decided instead of spending the day in London, that we would stop the night there - only £35.00 for a B&B and we got tickets to see Dreamgirls for £40.00 for the two! So happy. And we are still on track to pay off around £300.00 of debt this month. So I'm nice and relaxed. We are trying to find a balance between living in the moment and paying off debt. Seeing as we only have less than £3000.00 of debt between us, I think £300.00 is a good amount.


Back to work today. Getting up this morning wasn't actually the struggle I thought it would be. I'm all motivated. I have a job interview tomorrow, which if I'm successful, would see me earning around £300-400 more a month, so fingers crossed for that! I'm extremely nervous and want it so badly!


Three weeks today until payday. The middle of the months are soooo long, I just love sorting out all my spread sheets etc. But we all have to keep plodding don't we. I need to get back into the swing of things including my diet and exercise routine which has been non existent the past 10 days! So back off to the gym tonight.


Hope you all have a good week!

LiveLifeFull

Morning MSE!


Just popping in for a quick update. Still plodding on this month! Still on track to pay off £300+ of debt this month! Just need to stick to my budget 100% and not spend anymore than what I've allocated. I find this the hardest when I've had a drink Seem to think I'm a millionaire! :rotfl:


Don't know whether I have the job or not yet. The interview was brutal, the hardest interview I have ever done, but I THINK I pulled it off. They contacted me on Friday to let me know that they are still deliberating, and that they will contact me early this week, so fingers crossed for that as the extra income would be hugely beneficial.


I feel like this month we have really found a balance between paying off debt and still having fun throughout the month, so as long as we can keep up what we've been doing, we should be debt free soon enough! I cannot wait to be debt free and the money that I actually earn will be solely mine. I just want to start overpaying the mortgage and maximising my pension, so that I can retire earlier than 67 - that's the dream isn't it.


My friends think I'm crazy because I'm obsessed with paying off debt and the mortgage, as most of my friends have at least £12,000.00 in debt. At Least!! :eek: That absolutely terrifies me. They keep trying to egg me and the OH into going on holidays and countless night outs/meals, basically just saying we are young and shouldn't worry about debt/mortgages/retirement this early - but I've dug my heels in because at the end of the day, I'll be the one who is better off in the long run! Once I am debt free, I will split my money accordingly, between my pension/mortgage/savings/spending, I will SAVE for our holidays and budget every month still. I don't want to do what all my friends are doing atm, and taking out loans to go to Thailand, going out every weekend with their credit cards, or buying Gucc! belts when they can only just afford their debt repayments. I keep telling them to come on here and just do it, but its like talking to a brick wall.


Sorry for the rant, I just needed to get that off my chest


Hope you all have a good week! :j

enthusiasticsaver

No reason you cannot have fun but budget for it. As for your friends my advice would be leave them to it. You cannot make people handle their money responsibly. I bite my tongue now when friends the same age as me say how lucky DH and I are to be retired early when they have another 10 years to go. Those same people were out spending on credit cards years ago and not saving for retirement or overpaying their mortgages when we were saving and not spending. We still did holidays and meals out but we budgeted for them and were not afraid to say no we cannot afford that this month. We are lucky though in that neither of us are particularly keen on consumerism or named brands. No way would I buy a Gucci belt unless it was on a very good deal.

LiveLifeFull

Morning everyone!


Nothing much to report - I was naughty this morning and bought two bottles of diet coke - I was just getting sick of water!! I will make up for it though and do lots of surveys today to make my money back


Everything is still on track. Still haven't heard about the job so I'm pretty sure I haven't got it. It was nice of them to let me know though.. :rotfl:


Cannot wait for payday! Its my birthday next month so I've budgeted for that! We are staying in a Genting hotel in Resorts World! It looks AMAZING and its not that expensive! Going to have a spa treatment paid for by my BF and then all my friends are coming to meet me there for a night out! Cant wait :j and its ALL been budgeted for.


Happy Tuesday everyone!

LiveLifeFull

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

No reason you cannot have fun but budget for it. As for your friends my advice would be leave them to it. You cannot make people handle their money responsibly. I bite my tongue now when friends the same age as me say how lucky DH and I are to be retired early when they have another 10 years to go. Those same people were out spending on credit cards years ago and not saving for retirement or overpaying their mortgages when we were saving and not spending. We still did holidays and meals out but we budgeted for them and were not afraid to say no we cannot afford that this month. We are lucky though in that neither of us are particularly keen on consumerism or named brands. No way would I buy a Gucci belt unless it was on a very good deal.

I would have to bite my tongue too! "So lucky" .. No, we just worked our ars** off actually!!
It is frustrating.. because it is ALL of our friends. There's not one person I know at the moment that doesn't have that mentality, so we feel quite isolated and often left out. But that's what we are willing to do to reach our goals. It was and still is a relief to come on here and see that other people think the same as us, and that we aren't crazy!

savetosave

Maybe you need some new friends. We should have a friend making group on here so people can meet in real life and have MSE fun.

LiveLifeFull

savetosave wrote: »

Maybe you need some new friends. We should have a friend making group on here so people can meet in real life and have MSE fun.

:rotfl: I would actually love that! All us MSErs meeting up for a chitchat with our homemade coffee and snacks!! Absolutely love it!

enthusiasticsaver

LiveLifeFull wrote: »

I would have to bite my tongue too! "So lucky" .. No, we just worked our ars** off actually!!
It is frustrating.. because it is ALL of our friends. There's not one person I know at the moment that doesn't have that mentality, so we feel quite isolated and often left out. But that's what we are willing to do to reach our goals. It was and still is a relief to come on here and see that other people think the same as us, and that we aren't crazy!

Yes I would find that annoying. Thankfully most of our friends were of the same mindset as us and I am pretty sure it is a regional thing. All our London/south east friends (or most of them) from when we lived there 30 years ago carry lots of debt and are very image/brand conscious and absolutely must do the best restaurants, have fancy cars/branded clothes and two holidays a year(one winter, one summer in the Caribbean or somewhere like that). When we moved to Cornwall we abandoned the "keep up with the Jones mentality" and I am sure many we used to know years ago think we are now country bumpkins but we are much happier. Be secure in that you are doing the best for your family and maybe look for less shallow friends.

SavingAFuture

LiveLifeFull wrote: »

My friends think I'm crazy because I'm obsessed with paying off debt and the mortgage, as most of my friends have at least £12,000.00 in debt. At Least!! :eek: That absolutely terrifies me. They keep trying to egg me and the OH into going on holidays and countless night outs/meals, basically just saying we are young and shouldn't worry about debt/mortgages/retirement this early

I completely know how you feel about this. Most of our friends are in their late 20's, early 30's and seem to be constantly going out for dinner, up to London, on holidays... I almost wish I could be out doing that too, but then I remember my bigger goals. Once I'm debt free I'll be able to do whatever I want by saving and I'll be GUILT free too. Plus, the idea of early retirement spurs me on, particularly when I'm having a rubbishy day at work lol.

This weekend I'm going to a local event and I've decided to drive to save some money on travel, therefore I won't be drinking so saving on booze too, but I can still be there with my friends and enjoy it. It'll just cost me £10 instead of £50. Yay!

One day we'll look back and be soooo pleased with the little sacrifices we're making today.
Don't give in!! Budgeted fun is WAY better than fun on a credit card :T

LiveLifeFull

SavingAFuture wrote: »

I completely know how you feel about this. Most of our friends are in their late 20's, early 30's and seem to be constantly going out for dinner, up to London, on holidays... I almost wish I could be out doing that too, but then I remember my bigger goals. Once I'm debt free I'll be able to do whatever I want by saving and I'll be GUILT free too. Plus, the idea of early retirement spurs me on, particularly when I'm having a rubbishy day at work lol.

This weekend I'm going to a local event and I've decided to drive to save some money on travel, therefore I won't be drinking so saving on booze too, but I can still be there with my friends and enjoy it. It'll just cost me £10 instead of £50. Yay!

One day we'll look back and be soooo pleased with the little sacrifices we're making today.
Don't give in!! Budgeted fun is WAY better than fun on a credit card :T

Ohhh snap! I'm driving to an event on Saturday too! Its a girls day out, and everyone is drinking but its going to cost so much money drinking all day - so I've decided to cut costs and drive!


We can do this! We can retire together! :j Early retirement is our ultimate goal, as we want to buy a campervan and then travel the world! The earlier we can do that, the better! My aim is 55! Ambitious.. but do able!! I'll facetime all my friends when I'm 55 from my campervan that's parked on the edge of the lake in South America or Europe, and laugh and laugh and laugh. Whilst they realise they still have 12+ years left of working! DREAMGOALS!